At this writing, President Obama has neither the legal nor the political mandate to conduct airstrikes in Iraq or Syria. On Thursday night, 182 Members of the House voted yes on Representative Barbara Lee's amendment defunding the use of the 2002 Iraq Authorization for the Use Military Force.

It is not a lack of sympathy with the historic and current circumstance of Iraq’s religious minorities—or of other persecuted peoples in that traumatized country—that leads some of the most humane and responsible members of Congress to say that President Obama must seek approval from the House and Senate before committing the United States military to a new Iraq mission.

There are a number of ways that you can contact your Congressional representatives; you can email, call or pay a personal visit to their district or DC office. The action that consistently gets the most attention is stopping in at an office and dropping off a letter outlining what you'd like the office to consider.